Studies the comparative, evolutionary and ecological aspects of the mental phenomena of animals, linking them to philosophical theories of mind and empirical studies of animal cognition.
Cognitive ethology and philosophy of mind - an interdisciplinary approach; a brief historical account of classical ethology and cognitive ethology; what is behaviour?; but is it science?; from folk psychology to cognitive ethology; intentionality, social play and communication; antipredatory behaviour - from vigilance to recognition to action; consciousness - essential or dispensable?; toward an interdisciplinary science of cognitive ethology - synthesizing field, laboratory and armchair approaches.
Marc Bekoff is Professor of Environmental, Population, and Organismic Biology at the University of Colorado, Boulder.